The invention pertains to an ammunition feed system with an automatic clutch, especially for a revolver cannon.
Ammunition feed systems in belted and unbelted (linkless) form, which convey the ammunition to the feeder of the weapon, are sufficiently well known. The linkless ammunition is characterized by the fact that the installed volume in the ammunition magazine is generally smaller than for belted ammunition.
EP 1 024 339 B1 describes an ammunition magazine for beltlessly conveyed ammunition. The cartridges are fed from the ammunition magazine to the weapon by an ammunition feed system. The goal is to prevent the occurrence of slack chain links, especially during acceleration of the ammunition drive chain.
Ammunition feed systems are usually connected with the cannon either rigidly or by a clutch and move the ammunition into the weapon or cannon according to the rate of fire.
With respect to loading or unloading the ammunition feed system and discharging the cannon, it is necessary, especially at high basic loads, to separate the cannon from the ammunition feed system. This can be accomplished by a manually operated clutch, which mechanically separates the ammunition feed system from the cannon. After disengagement, the cannon and ammunition feed system can be moved independently of each other and the operations of loading/unloading can be carried out. For loading the cannon itself and firing, the ammunition feed system and the cannon must be synchronized again by the clutch.